The Left's War on Reality - by Michael Shellenberger & Alex Gutentag (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The road to hell is paved with bad intentions, not good ones.

In The Left's War on Reality, Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag, two former progressives, delve into the unsettling truth behind the Left's policies. What they uncover is far more troubling than mere unintended consequences. Through nine meticulously researched case studies, they reveal a shocking conclusion: the destruction caused by the Left isn't accidental--it's deliberate.

From open borders and trans "medicine" to climate change and Covid, Shellenberger and Gutentag expose how the Left's policies are designed to dismantle nations, communities, and lives. Cloaked in the language of empathy and science, these policies mask a deeper agenda: the systematic erosion of civilization itself.

On each of their key issues, progressives inhabit dream worlds, imagining themselves as heroes and their opponents as villains. Lost in these fantasies, the Left rejects real-world evidence and justifies enormous harm through complicated academic theories, pseudoscientific models, and language games.

When confronted with the problems it creates, the Left blames its enemies. Plummeting literacy scores? Racism. The romantic recession? Toxic masculinity. Mass migration? Western colonialism. Euthanizing poor and lonely people? Inequality. Regretful detransitioners? Transphobia. Skyrocketing overdoses? Anti-drug stigma. Failure of renewables? Climate skepticism.

With sharp analysis and compelling evidence, The Left's War on Reality dismantles the Left's claims of rationality and compassion, showing how progressive policies betray their own ostensible principles and hurt the very people they claim to help.

Review Quotes

"Modern progressivism's signature maneuver is to punish those who refuse to pretend that the emperor is clothed. In this bracing, deeply researched book, Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag reveal the consequences of this ideological assault on our shared reality. This outstanding book is essential reading for understanding the methods of the ongoing cultural revolution in the West."
-- Abigail Shrier, bestselling author of Irreversible Damage and Bad Therapy

"A clarifying, chilling picture of the modern Left's love of self-aggrandising fantasy worlds and blindness to reality, and a humane plea for the many vulnerable people that are harmed by ideological capture along the way. Anyone tempted by simplified political slogans should read this book and think again."
-- Kathleen Stock, author of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, contributing writer at UnHerd, and former professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex